Posted on 04/13/2019 7:24:55 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The Q65 bus came to a stop along a residential block in Queens and a construction worker stepped onboard. He walked past the farebox without paying. The driver pushed the F5 button on his dashboard.
At the next stop, an older woman with a cane climbed on and gave the driver a hearty wave. She, too, did not pay. Again the driver pressed F5.
Over two and a half hours, the driver pressed F5 — the button that records fare evaders — at least 50 times, and there was still a half-hour left on his morning route.
“It’s getting worse,” said the driver, Luis, who declined to provide his full name because he did not have permission to discuss his job. “How many? On my bus, hundreds a day. Hundreds with an ‘s.’”
Transit officials recently announced a remarkable figure: One in five bus riders in New York City does not pay the fare. The statistic stunned even Andy Byford, the leader of the subway and bus system, who said it was “wholly unacceptable” and at least double the rate of other cities across the world.
“We look at what other transit authorities are suffering, and this now really stands out as an outlier,” Mr. Byford said.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the agency that oversees the subway and buses, says fare evasion is on the rise on the subway and buses, costing the system $225 million in lost revenue last year. But the problem is far worse on buses, where nearly 22 percent of riders do not pay, compared with 3.4 percent of subway riders.
An informal survey on several routes found that fare evasion was widespread and the reasons varied. Riders did not have exact change. They knew they would not get in trouble.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
What could F1 thru F4 be used for?
Maybe F1 counts when a passenger mumbles something about snack bars, F2 counts when ...
How about summoning a NINJA robot to shock them?
Wouldn't want to be that bus driver the next day when the same, now pi$$ed off fare-beater gets on the bus and wants to settle things.
Sadly, I believe marxists understand human nature all to well.
In a real democrat city, the offending driver would be killed, the perp would walk off the bus, n nobody on the bus would see anything. Coming to Phoenix, mark my words.
You are not stupid, you are simply a good decent person who cannot imagine stealing anything.
Exactly.
NYC also has a “fair fare” program, where low-income gibsmedats can get reduced fares. They didn’t like it because it didn’t apply to longer-term passes.
In any other part of this world (both more-evolved or less), one day the bus just wouldn’t show up - and it never would again.
When I used to ride a bus in NJ that is how I remember it as well; the bus wouldn’t move until you paid. Then again, most riders were a different demographic.
Americans will never part with their privately-owned vehicles as long as using mass transit means paying directly for these “F-5 types”. Never mind paying for them; who would even want to sit next to them?
Third World dump...complete with Third world population,
Ugh, who wants to ride on a nasty filthy NYC bus?
This is where Giuliani’s “Broken Windows” policy comes in. If you don’t enforce the law in small things, not only do they get worse, it encourages breaking more serious laws.
If you are white, you gotta pay the bite.
Key paragraph.
I see a lot of high school students entering the bus via the back door held open by one of their friends, and a lot of other people doing the same thing who should know better. Sometimes, the bus driver tells you not to swipe your Metrocard when you enter through the front door. But, the MTA insists it’s critically short of money to make any repairs or improvements. I don’t get it.
Id wager there are a goodly number here on FR that think it shouldn’t happen because it’s just plain wrong to ride on someone else’s dime - while never donating a cent to FR...hence my tagline
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